Back When My Wedding Band Fit

Taking a little inspiration from "Miss" [not for long] Jumble Mash over at her new blog "Jumble Bells", I thought I would tell you about our wedding.

JM is getting married in less than a year and is detailing it on Jumble Bells - she is doing an awesome job of finding what her and her fiance desire and it is falling into place with very few hiccups.  I think the woman may have a future in wedding planning. :)

The reason I wanted to write about Pooldad's and my wedding is because it was so low key it was a "C" on the piano of life. BUT, it was the best day of my life [and hopefully Pooldad. Chime in honey.]

Here is the story:

We were both previously married - hence the "yours, mine and ours" conglomeration of children we have.  We were both legally separated when we met but only Pooldad managed a divorce within a few months of us meeting.  My "lovely" :hack, cough, hack: ex husband managed to deny me a divorce for over two years after him leaving me and the babies.  Although he was living with another woman and never saw the children, he insisted to Pooldad that he didn't want to grant me a divorce because then he would "lose all control over Skippy."

Yeah, that was kind of sick.  But...we held out hope.

I finally forced his hand by scheduling our divorce through a mediator instead of our separate lawyers.  Long story short that would have cost him more then he wanted to give up and I received a phone call on a glorious Friday afternoon.  My lawyer informed me that my divorce would be final as of 10 am the following Monday.

Skippy happy dance!!!!!

We decided right then and there we were getting married Monday evening. Come hell or high water we had waited long enough and we wanted to be married.

But, oh crap...two and half days to plan a wedding?

Yep - and we pulled it off with aplomb. Let me tell ya'.

Here comes the fun parts:

• The first thing we did was secure a minister.  We couldn't get married in the church, so we scoured the back of the "Washington Post Magazine" [a local insert to the Washington Post newspaper] and found a Baptist minister who agreed to marry us Monday evening for $150.00.  One of our favorite memories of Reverend Tilden was his sky blue polyester leisure suit.  If you know our sense of humor you can only imagine how hard we had to work to not giggle during the ceremony.  He was a good guy and got the job done.  His license plate actually said "I MARRY". How cool is that?
• Next step was to figure out where.  My parents said we could use their house and we accepted.  It was a large enough place to hold the 15 or so guests we were having - which was our next move.  Invite people.  We couldn't get Pooldad's brother or my sister up from the south but the rest of the family was there, including Pooldad's Aunt & Uncle, Grandmother, Parents, my Parents and my Brother and his family.
• Cake.  Cake...we  went to our local French bakery and ordered a simple, two tier white cake with raspberry filling that the bakers decorated beautifully when they found out it was for our wedding.  Amazingly enough it cost $45!  It fed 50 - we had a lot of leftovers. :)
• Flowers.  We wanted simple ... I am a huge fan of daisies so that is what I ordered from the florist, only I didn't tell them it was for my wedding. Super cheap and my Mom decorated her house wonderfully!  She did surprise me with a big ol' bouquet with extra special flowers [pic' above] but the daisies were so great.  Hey, I am simple. What can I say. [I don't know what my Mom paid for my bouquet but the flowers to decorate and for Pooldad, Squirrels headband [I made] and Jr. was $75.]
• The hardest part was outfitting Pooldad, me and our attendants [Squirrel and Jr.]  We went on a whirlwind shopping trip to the outlet mall and bought my dress, shoes, jewelry, Pooldad's entire outfit, Jr's double breasted suit [so cute] and Squirrels matching [to mine] dress and her shoes. Whew.  I hate shopping but it was fun. [My dress was $60 - which it would probably still cost.  Suit jacket, tie, shirt, pants, shoes, socks and belt for P/D was  $175. Jr's suit and shoes, shirt and socks were around $70 and Squirrel's dress and shoes were $35]
• Food.  I have to be honest.  We could not afford to cater at such a late notice so I pilfered one of the brochures from our local grocery store and copied their party platters.  We had cold meats and cheese, fruits and veggies, shrimp and a lox w/pumpernickel bread cream cheese plate. <---last one is so my Mom.  It was delicious.  Again - too many leftovers, but it cost a total of $260 with the trays, garnishes and Mom & I spent Sunday putting it all together.  We also had champagne and sparkling cider.  I never did get a drink tho' - I dropped my glass. I was so tired.

The best four things happened Monday tho'

• True to my lawyer's word I was divorced by 10:10 am with my Mom as my witness. YAY!
• It took us 4 hours to get a marriage license.  Although it had taken me over 2 1/2 years to get my ex to court to divorce him, the process in court took 10 minutes - while we waited in the heat for 4 hours with 2 toddlers running around with a wedding in a scant few hours!
• As I was leaving our home to drive to my parents Pooldad leaned into the car to kiss me and asked me "So how did it feel to be a single woman for five hours?"  :smartass: I replied "Don't make me find out what it feels like for 5 MORE months buddy." giggle

Seriously.  I was divorced in the morning and married that evening.

To my best friend and the love of my life.

With Pooldad's Grandma

I remember this day so fondly because the idea that I was able to marry Pooldad outweighed what we had to get done in so little time. Sure, we wanted certain things - friends and family there, nice outfits, flowers and food - but ultimately I would've married him on a street corner if that was my only option.

I truly enjoy the big, fancy weddings and all the planning that it entails - and I get such a vicarious thrill out of reading about others plans. It brings back such great memories of our own.

So to Jumble and to ThisisMe - thanks for sharing with us so we can enjoy just a little bit of time in memory land while we thrill to the upcoming nuptials in your lives.

[And if anyone is wondering - yes, Pooldad and I do still fit in our wedding attire all these years later. But, alas, my wedding band doesn't. I have lost too much weight and we haven't had it sized as of yet. :)]

Have a fantastic Thursday Tadpoles and thanks for indulging me.